The present invention relates to a feature for a motor vehicle that advises the vehicle driver to travel on roads on which other safety systems of the motor vehicle are enabled.
Various new safety systems have been developed for automobiles using technologies that sense the area around the automobile. Examples of some new safety systems for automobiles include automatic headlight aiming, adaptive cruise control, obstacle warning, curve warning, intersection warning, lane departure warning, collision warning, and adaptive transmission shift control. The automatic headlight aiming system detects when the vehicle is approaching a curve and adjusts the vehicle""s headlights, i.e., width, rotational angle, elevation angle, and brightness, based on the curvature of the road ahead of the vehicle, tilt, elevation change, and other factors. The adaptive cruise control system maintains and/or resumes a set speed or safe following distance from other vehicles at slower than the set speed based on data about vehicle speed, nearby vehicles and other obstructions, type of road being traveled (motorway vs. local road), road curvature, tilt, elevation, and other factors. The obstacle warning system detects objects around the vehicle and provides warnings about the obstacles to the vehicle driver. The curve warning system detects upcoming curves along the vehicle path and provides warnings to the vehicle driver if the vehicle speed is excessive given the road conditions. The intersection warning system detects upcoming intersections along the vehicle path and provides warnings to the driver if appropriate. The lane departure warning system detects when the vehicle has departed from a lane and provides warnings to the driver as appropriate. The adaptive shift system control adjusts the gearing and shifting of automatic transmissions based on sensor data about vehicle speed, engine speed, road curvature, tilt, elevation, and other factors. There are other vehicle safety systems in addition to these.
These vehicle safety systems use a variety of sensor mechanisms in the vehicle to detect the current state of the vehicle and detect the current state of the roadway in front of the vehicle. These sensor mechanisms may include radar and vision-oriented sensors, such as cameras. Although radar and vision-oriented sensors are important components of vehicle safety systems, these components have limitations. The range and/or accuracy of radar or vision-oriented sensors can be affected by certain environmental conditions, such as fog, heavy rain or snow, or snow-covered roads. Moreover, radar and vision-oriented systems do not reliably detect certain useful road attributes, such as speed limits, traffic signs, bridge crossings, etc. Further, radar and vision-oriented sensors cannot xe2x80x9cseexe2x80x9d around corners or other obstructions and therefore may be limited under such circumstances.
One way to address the limitations of radar and vision-oriented systems is to use digital map data as an additional component in these vehicle safety systems. Digital map data can be used in vehicle safety systems to provide information about the road ahead or around the vehicle. Digital map data is not affected by environmental conditions, such as fog, rain or snow. In addition, digital map data can provide useful information that cannot reliably be provided by vision-oriented systems, such as speed limits, traffic and lane restrictions, etc. Further, digital map data can be used to determine the road ahead of the vehicle even around corners or beyond obstructions. Accordingly, digital map data can be a useful addition in vehicle safety systems.
Although digital map data can be used as an additional component in vehicle safety systems, issues remain to be addressed before digital map data can be widely used for such purposes. For example, there is a need to efficiently handle the relatively large amount of digital map data required for vehicle safety systems. In addition, different vehicle safety systems require different types and quantities of digital map data and therefore there is a need to provide those digital map data needed by the various vehicle safety systems.
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a feature for a motor vehicle that includes a navigation system and one or more safety systems that detect the area around the vehicle. The navigation system uses geographic data and the one or more safety systems also use geographic data. The feature advises the vehicle driver to travel along roads that are represented by data that enables operation of the one or more safety systems. According to a first aspect, when the navigation system calculates a route to a destination, the navigation system favors roads that are represented by geographic data that enables operation of the one or more of the safety systems.
According to another aspect, the feature is implemented interactively, while the vehicle is being driven, by indicating which paths ahead of the vehicle are favored as being represented by data that enables operation of the one or more safety systems.
According to yet another aspect, the feature is implemented heuristically to advise the driver of alternative routes to commonly visited destinations wherein the alternative routes favor roads represented by data that enable use of the one or more safety systems.